The Serbian Super League (Serbian: Супер лига Србије / Super liga Srbije), referred to as the Mozzart Bet SuperLiga (Serbian: Моцарт Бет СуперЛига, English: Mozzart Bet Super League) for sponsorship reasons, is a Serbian professional league for football clubs.
The SuperLiga was formed during the summer of 2005 as the country's top football league competition in Serbia and Montenegro. Since summer 2006 after the secession of Montenegro from Serbia, the league only has had Serbian clubs.
Serbian clubs used to compete in the Yugoslav First League. This competition was formed in 1923 and lasted until 2003. After the downfall of SFR Yugoslavia in 1991 a new Yugoslavia would be formed that would be named FR Yugoslavia with Montenegro and Serbia. They kept the name Yugoslavia until 2003 when the country changed its name to Serbia and Montenegro: this union lasted until 2006 when Montenegro gained independence and formed its own league, the Montenegrin First League.
The current SuperLiga champions are Red Star Belgrade. UEFA currently ranks the league 13th in Europe of 55 leagues.[1] The league was known as Meridian SuperLiga from 2005 until 2008. The league's official sponsor until 2015 was beer brand Jelen pivo, this resulted in the league's official name to be Jelen SuperLiga.
Format
Competition
The SuperLiga began as a league with a playoff system in an attempt to boost ratings and improve competition. After the first season however, the SuperLiga changed its format. The 2007–08 season was the first to be played in a more traditional format. The league no longer divided into a play-off and play-out group midway through the campaign. Instead, the 12 teams began playing each other three times in a more conventional league format. After two seasons with that format the Football Association of Serbia decided to add 4 teams to the SuperLiga. The 2009–10 season will be the first with a 16 team league played in a conventional league format of one home and one away match rather than the previous 3 match encounters. This drops the match schedule from 33 rounds to 30.
As of the 2015-16 season, the league reverted to its previous playoff system, whereby the top 8 placed teams compete in the championship round at the end of the season and the 8 lowest placed teams play in the relegation playoff round. The two bottom placed teams are relegated to the second division, the Serbian Prva Liga. The third lowest-placed team is then sent to a relegation playoff against the third-placed team in the second division. Whichever team wins will play in the SuperLiga the following season.
Qualification for UEFA competitions
Superliga champions and runner-ups enter Champions League qualifying entering the play-off round and second qualifying round respectively. The cup winner qualifies for the Europa League playoff round. The third and fourth placed teams enter the qualyfing round of the UEFA Europa Conference League , entering in the third and second qualifying round respectively.
In 2022-23, champions Red Star Belgrade were guaranteed to enter the Champions League group stage, due to access list changes in the Champions League regarding the suspension of Russian teams, and Serbia was ranked 11th in the UEFA coefficient list. TSC was also promoted from the UCL second qualifying round to the third qualifying round. This meant that for the first time ever, Serbia was allocated an group stage berth in the Champions League.
History
The Yugoslav First League started being played in 1923, and gathered the best clubs from the former Yugoslavia. In 1991, clubs from Slovenia and Croatia left and formed their own league systems, and in 1992 so did the clubs from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia. The Yugoslav First League was played since 1992 with clubs from Serbia and Montenegro, until 2006, when Montenegro declared independence and subsequently formed its own league system. Since 2006 the league is formed exclusively by clubs from Serbia and got renamed into Serbian SuperLiga.
Serbian League (1920–1922 / 1940–1944 / 1945–1946)
In 1992 the Yugoslav First League became the First League of FR Yugoslavia (Prva savezna liga or Meridian SuperLiga) and was played since then with the clubs from Serbia and Montenegro.
The league winner had access to the UEFA Champions League qualifications rounds, and the 2nd, 3rd and the Cup winner had played in the UEFA Cup. The bottom clubs would be relegated to the two Second Leagues depending on the republic they were based in, the Second League of Serbia (Druga savezna liga Srbija) and the Second League of Montenegro (Druga savezna liga grupa Crna Gora).
In 2002, FR Yugoslavia changed its name to Serbia and Montenegro, and the league was named First League of Serbia and Montenegro between 2002 and its dissolution, in 2006. In 2006 Serbia and Montenegro separated and formed their own top leagues (Serbian SuperLiga and Montenegrin First League). Serbian SuperLiga was officially declared the successor of the First Leagues of FR Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro.
A total of 41 clubs participated between 1992 and 2006, being 34 from Serbia, 6 from Montenegro and one from Bosnia and Herzegovina (Borac Banja Luka was temporarily based in Serbia in early 1990s). A total of 3 clubs were champions, all from Serbia, Partizan (8 times), Red Star (5 times) and Obilić (once).
A total of 28 clubs participated between 2006 and 2013 in the Serbian Superliga. After 17 seasons, Red Star has won 9 championship titles and Partizan has won 8 championship title. Also, Red Star and Partizan are record holders of winning 6 consecutive champion titles.
The following is a list of clubs who have played in the Serbian SuperLiga at any time since its formation in 2006 to the current season. Teams playing in the 2023–24 Serbian SuperLiga are indicated in bold. A total of 39 teams have played in the Serbian SuperLiga. The table is accurate as of the start of the 2023–24 season.
Serbian top level football has been played in 27 stadiums since its formation in 2006. The top-three stadiums by clubs who are competing currently (2021-2022) in the Serbian top flight by seating capacity are Belgrade-based Red Star Stadium, Partizan Stadium and FK Radnicki Nis Cair Stadium.
Below are the ten largest stadiums in Serbia of clubs who are competing or have competed in the Serbian top division of football. Currently in the below list only six of these clubs are competing in the Serbian top flight, them been as follows : Red Star, Partizan, Vojvodina, Radnički Niš, Radnički Kragujevac and Spartak Subotica.
Serbian Superliga games are broadcast live on Arena Sport in countries of Ex-Yugoslavia. 02.TV starts broadcasting Serbian Superliga from March 2019. SportKlub Slovenia is also broadcasting live Serbian Superliga matches.
The Eternal derby is the game that attracts most attention from the foreign media. In 2010, the 139th Eternal derby was broadcast in 19 countries and over 60 foreign correspondents were present.[9]
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